Pediatric allergy and immunology : official publication of the European Society of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology
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Pediatr Allergy Immunol · Aug 2009
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyThe comparison of cetirizine, levocetirizine and placebo for the treatment of childhood perennial allergic rhinitis.
Cetirizine (Zyrtec) is a potent and long-acting second-generation histamine H1- receptor antagonist for the treatment of allergic disease, such as allergic rhinitis and chronic idiopathic urticaria, in adult and child. It is a racemic mixture of levocetirizine (Xyzal) and dextrocetirizine. The purpose of this present study was to compare the efficacy of cetirizine, levocetirizine and placebo for the treatment of pediatric perennial allergic rhinitis. 74 perennial allergic rhinitis patients, aged 6 to 12 years old, assigned to 1 of 3 treatment groups for 12 weeks randomly. ⋯ The eosinophil proportion in a nasal smear significantly decreased among the cetirizine in comparison with the placebo group but there was no statistic significant in levocetirizine groups. Both cetirizine and levocetirizine showed significant improvement in nPEFR in comparison with the placebo group, and ceterizine appeared to be more efficacious than levocetirizine. The 12-week treatment program showed that cetirizine was more effectious than levocetirizine.